Senate body seeks details of HIV cases in Sindh

Committee chairman expresses concern over rising number of Aids cases in Sindh

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on National Health Service, Regulations and Coordination has directed authorities at National Aids Control Programme to present details of the HIV cases in Sindh.

The committee met under the chairmanship of Senator Mian Mohammad Ateeq Shaikh.

State Minister for Health Dr Zafar Mirza maintained that the poor in Pakistan were forced to spend as much as 60 percent of their household income for acquiring health facilities.

The committee while expressing concern over the increasing number of polio cases in the country called for making it compulsory for the parents to present vaccination card of their children upon school admissions.



The committee advised prime minister’s focal personal for polio eradication Babar Bin Ata to appear in its next session with details of the vaccination campaign.

On the other side, committee chairman praised special assistant on health said that he had immediately cut down the prices of over 300 medicines soon after assuming the office for which he deserved accolades.

However, he expressed concern over the rising number of HIV cases in Sindh and lamented that the administration remained ignorant of the spread of the virulent disease. He directed the health ministry to present investigation and details of HIV cases to the committee.



The chairman directed the National Aids Control Programme in Islamabad to contact its Sindh branch and advised the body to ascertain whether the reports were exaggerated or a kind of drama similar to that of polio cases in Peshawar.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Zahid Hamid informed the committee that the ministry was not given about 51 percent of its budget allocated during the last fiscal year.

Special Assistant on Health Zafar Mirza lamented that the government was allocating the lowest amount of budget for the sector.



He said that fatalities in children would continue if the system was not changed. Thalassemia in children could be prevented if people start having their blood screened for the disease before they get married.

“There should be a law making it mandatory for the marrying man and woman to have their blood tests done, just like we see such a law in Oman,” he said, adding that the state of Oman was now free of the blood disease.

Executive Director and General Manager for National Institute of Health Amir Ikram told the committee that the department was working to develop a vaccine against snakebites in Pakistan. The project, he said, was being completed through support from China.